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When Deportivo Tachira arrived in the capital of Caracas at the start of March, they were on an unprecedented unbeaten run in Venezuelan football. Stretching back nearly a year, Eduardo Sarago’s men had not tasted defeat in 33 games. Their last loss, 2-0 to Metropolitanos, was at the Estadio Olímpico de la UCV, which is where they were headed again—this time to play arch-rivals Caracas Futbol Club in Venezuela’s biggest derby, El Clasico Moderno.
The hosts had lost an unbeaten run of their own the last time they were at El Olímpico: after 9 victories and 10 draws, Los Rojos’ 19-game unbeaten home run came to an end in the 88th minute of an eventual 0-1 loss to Portuguesa. They hadn’t conceded at home in over 630 minutes. The fact that the strike was an increasingly rare moment of football romance—Richard Blanco scoring his 200th goal in the Venezuelan Primera Division at the age of 42—did not lessen the blow. They could, however, take hope from the fact they had kept 10 clean sheets in their last 20 home games and had not lost over 90 minutes at home to Tachira since 2005.
The script writers had numerous narratives laid out before their eyes, and VAR would be present as the pantomime villain. All that was left was for Los Demonios Rojos, the Caracas barra, to put on a show in the stands. And they did not disappoint.
What is known of Venezuelan fan culture outside of its borders is few and far between. The barra—like ultras, for European readers—of Caracas have friendly relations with some other barras across South America, such as Internacional of Brazil and America de Cali of Colombia, and Tachira with Emelec of Ecuador and Colo-Colo of Chile. Yet its fledgling scene, burgeoning almost, is a cacophony of sound and kaleidoscope of colour that demands attention further afield.
For this latest edition of the Clasico Moderno, a few diehard Caracas fans had been camping out at El Olímpico for several days leading into the match. Why? To protect…
Source link : https://www.footballparadise.com/when-caracas-fans-made-it-rain-at-the-clasico/
Author : Jordan Florit
Publish date : 2024-03-21 13:30:00
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